Some companies and enterprises use managed print networks to monitor and control print jobs of the employees or users. Monitoring and controlling print jobs allows the company to control costs by eliminating personal print jobs at the office, suggesting alternative print parameters for a print job, routing print jobs to cheaper printers, allocate costs for each print job to the appropriate department, and the like.
However, one disadvantage of a managed print network is that a user may be unable to print when the managed print network fails. Currently, when a managed print network fails there are only two options. One option is to halt all printing until the managed print network is brought back online. This option is undesirable because some documents may need to be printed and cause a bottleneck for certain work flows or processes in the company.
A second option is to allow users to print directly to an available printer, but without tracking the print jobs. This option is undesirable because print jobs that are not tracked can lead to higher costs for the company. In addition, the company may be unable to allocate costs for the print jobs that are not tracked.